Insole



Sept. 19, 1933. A, c, SEWALL INSOLE Filed June 22, 1932 by a is CifiewceZZ,

Patented Sept. 19, 1933 INSOLE Arthur C. Sewall,

Application June 22, 1932. Serial No. 618,629

2 Claims.

My invention, which relates to insoles for shoes, and has among its objects the provision of an insole of improved construction, which may be readily fabricated and shipped to shoe manu 5 facturers, and be incorporated by the latter in shoes with a minimum of efiort, will be best understood from the following description when read in the light of the accompanying drawing of one embodiment of the invention, the scope of which latter will be more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing: Fig. l is a plan of an insole according to the invention as shipped to the manufacturer;

Fig. 2 is a plan of an insole made by trimming or shaping the insole shown by Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. Referring to the drawing, the insole illustrated comprises a ball portion 1 of flexible material such as, for example, flexible natural or artificial leather, or flexible leather substitute. By employing for this portion of the insole a material which naturally, or as treated, is flexible, the use of a laminated structure, or of leather or the like which is slotted to render it flexible, is avoided. It has been found that a laminated structure, when bent when the shoe is on the foot of the wearer, has a tendency to crinkle, due to the different degrees of flexibility of the diflerent laminae and due to the tendency of one lamina to slide over the other. Further, leather which is slotted to render it flexible is not unitinuous surface formed by the slots, tends to resist sliding over the surfaces in contact therewith, which sliding must occur when the shoe is bent when on the foot of the wearer.

In the insole illustrated, the toe portion 3, and the unitary portion consituting the shank 5 and heel 7 are preferably formed of relatively stiff material so as to stiffen the shoe and prevent bending of the shoe at all these portions, this material also being preferably tough to prevent pulling through of the nails used for the lasting operation and such nails as may be used at the heel portion in the fabricated shoe. This relatively stiff material preferably is commercial waterproof fiber-board.

In the present embodiment of the invention the opposite ends of the flexible ball portion, and the corresponding ends of the toe portion and the unitary portion constituting the shank and heel, are skived, as indicated at 9 and 11 respectively, and secured to each other by use of rubber Richmond, Maine cement.

mentioned.

Preferably the insole is of uniform thickness throughout its length, which condition may readily be secured by use of the materials In practice the ball portion of the insole may be made of scrap leather graded as to thickness,

this scrap being of no particular shape so long as large enough to permit the insole to be trimmed or otherwise shaped, as, for example, to betrimmed along the dotted line 13 in Fig. 1 to The insoles so formed may be shipped to the shoe manufacturer who may trim or die them to the shape required by the particular shoe being manufactured.

It will be understood that wide deviations may 'be made from the form of the invention herein described without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the entire insole may be made of flexible bibulous or absorbent material, in which case the ball portion may be treated with latex or a rubber solution to render it waterproof, and the toe and the shank and heel portions may be stiffened by treating them with resinous material commonly employed for stiifening and toughening bibulous material.

I claim:

1. An insole comprising a ball portion of relatively thin flexible material having continuous formly flexible and tends to crack due to the upper and lower Surfaces. d a toe portion and presence of the slots, and, due to the non-con-' a heel Portion both of atly th Sa e thickness as said ball portion and being formed of stiff, tough fiber-board or the like for preventing buckling thereof during the lasting operation and pulling through of the lasting and heel attaching nails.

2. An insole comprising a ball portion of relasame thickness as said ball portion and being formed of stiff, tough fiber-board or the like for preventing buckling thereof during the lasting operation and pulling through of the lasting and heel attaching nails.

ARTHUR C. SEWALL. 

